MTA Logo on Flickr.
Once again, an inability to plan for fluctuations in the city’s economy has caused the MTA to put promised service improvements on hold. The subway and bus system upgrades that the MTA promised in return for recent fare hikes are most likely not going to happen any time soon–if at all. Plans for increased service on the 1, 3, 4, 6, G, and R lines, increased numbers of attendants at high-traffic stations, and new and extended bus routes have all been put on hold, because–surprise!–the MTA may be facing another budget shortfall. At least this time they are only off by the tens of millions and not the billions of other times.
The MTA blames the poor state of the real estate market as the reason its revenues fell short of what had been projected. This month alone they were planning on $110 million in revenue from real-estate transactions, but only collected $79 million.
The MTA is going to wait until June before deciding whether they will be able to move ahead with any of these improvements later in the
year. While we wait to see whether any of the service upgrades actually happen, the MTA reminds us to patronize the stores affected by the construction of the 2nd Avenue subway line–that is before we find out that this project has also been put on the chopping block.
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